I don’t deserve to be a Doper…
DH is making a video for work that includes famous historical quotes, and he was adding,
I said - I thought Gorbechev was Russian, what was he doing in Berlin?
Then DH laughed at me and explained the whole story.
To my defense, I was eight when the wall came down and my history classes never made it past the 30’s or so. But I still feel really stupid right now.
don’t feel stupid.
i thought that was pretty damn funny.
funny hah hah, not laughing at you funny.
cries
If it makes you feel better, I’m not smart. I’m just OLD… 
Ach, you’re not that old. DH remembered it - he was 16 at the time. He was laughing at me because he couldn’t wrap his head around someone who didn’t remember it.
I just didn’t pay attention to the news until I was 20 or so.
Don’t worry, someday you will look back on this and laugh, like I am now.
So, um, what was he doing in Germany. I thought he was Russian too.
I think I was 20 (in 2000) before I knew that there was actually a wall in Germany. I thought it was just a metaphor.
I’m beginning to realize just how shitty my history classes were.
About 20 years ago, my husband was in a record store in the mall (you know, vinyl musical devices) when he overheard a high schooler who was flipping through the Beatles’ albums say in amazement “Wow! Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings!!!” He felt suddenly ancient.
Nonsense.
Just consider this another victory in the never-ending War on Ignorance.
Nowadays, the young punk will probably exclaim, “Paul McCartney was in a band?!” or worse, “Who’s Paul McCartney?”
But you had a sense that Gorbachev was Russian, and a politiacl leader, right? You didn’t think he was a shoe designer or a medalist in X-games. So that’s something to be proud of.
Gorbachev was not in either of the Germanys when Reagan made his declaration. But the USSR exercised enormous control over East Germany and its other satelite countries. Had Gorbachev wanted, he could have had the wall, which was installed by the Soviets originally, torn down.
Do I hear a whoosh?
Based on congodwarf’s saying that he made it through two decades of his life before he knew there was an actual Berlin Wall and generally lamenting the low quality of his history classes, I’d say you’re hearing things.
Beloit College in Wisconsin publishes an annual list of things that the faculty should be aware about the incoming class. (For example, a college freshman today probably barely remembers the presidency of George H. W. Bush, and wasn’t even alive during most of the Reagan presidency.) It can be very upsetting to anyone even a few years out of college.
I wish the mindset list for the class of 1998 was still up on that site. Very little of the class of 2005 applied to me.
Part of the problem is that my mother never ever watched or listened to the news. She was very disturbed by it. As a byproduct, important events from my childhood went virtually unnoticed in my household. I have decided that IF I ever do have kids and give up every freedom I now possess, they will watch the news with me every night. I will not sensor them from the depressing events.
The other problem is that I didn’t study history at all until 5th grade. I stopped studying it in 10th grade. In those years, every single damn teacher started teaching us about Columbus and by the end of the year, we were studying the Civil War. It wasn’t until my history class in college earlier this year (and at the age of 25) that I actually had a teacher start with the industrial revolution and finish with WWII.
I did actually take AP US History in 11th grade but I don’t really count that. We spent 3 months debating whether or not Columbus was the savage in his interactions with the natives. We spent another two months studying whether or not Wethersfield CT became more or less democratic over a 10 year period. I stopped paying attention about halfway through that enlightening debate :rolleyes: .
From what I’ve seen, this is fairly common for History classes in Massachusetts public schools. I hope the rest of the country doesn’t suck quite this bad.
My college history teacher was incredible and I think that was in part because I spent $2000 for that 6 week class.
Oh, and for the record, this he is actually a she 